METHODS
This is a cohort of all children hospitalized with SARS-CoV2 infection from March to September 3rd 2020, and all children admitted with influenza throughout five flu-seasons (2013-2018) at Hospital Infantil de México Federico Gómez, a national referral pediatric hospital with 290 beds and more than 7,000 discharges per year.
Patients with influenza were identified from the clinical laboratory database. Detection of respiratory viruses by PCR multiplex started in 2012 but was established as standard care of children with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection in 2013. We reviewed all records of the subjects with detection of influenza by PCR and included only those that had been hospitalized.
All hospitalized patients with confirmed SARS-CoV2 infection were followed-up prospectively. PCR test was performed on nasopharyngeal swabs of suspect cases beginning in March 2020, and to all admitted patients regardless of symptoms from June 2020.
We collected demographic and clinical variables from the clinical records, including age, sex, comorbidities, symptoms, admission to PICU (pediatric intensive care unit), need for mechanical ventilation and death, among others.